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Thark
"Captain's Log, 10.25.2152: We arrived in the HD 93129 System in the TR 14 Star Cluster outside of the Carina Nebula. We spotted a planetary system with two possible planets within the Frost Line of 93129, and FTL'ed from the Relay System of Eta Carinae to investigate possible viability. After two days of travel, we've arrived at what we've come to call the 'Thark' System (HD 93129). What we found... could have been First Contact. But everything was dead, and the possible planet a Charnel House..." -'' Commander Jon Grissom, Commander of the SAEV ''Excelsior, 2152. The remains of the space-faring race known as 'Thark' was discovered by the Systems Alliance Exploration Vessel Excelsior, captained by Commander Jon Grissom. Discovered in early 2152, it was the second-known intelligent species Mankind had discovered in the galaxy, including the 'Forerunners' (Protheans). Unlike the Forerunners, whose outpost in the Desodo Crater on Mars was left inexplicitly abandoned, it was quickly clear what happened to the Thark; they were made extinct through interstellar war by another spacefaring species. Tharks are a part of the Peacemaker Series. The Flight of the Excelsior In the first years after the discovery of the Mars Archives in the Desoto Crater, exploration and discovery became successful thanks to the discovery of half-a-dozen Forerunner vessels, reverse-engineered with a healthy supply of the majestic Forerunner material 'String Theory Material', or STM (based upon the theories of Quantum Mechanics, it is currently known as Element Zero). The first extrasolar vessel, the Excelsior, ''was created by means of extracting one of he precious advanced engines into a human-made starcraft and adapting technologies to integrate it. In 2149, the TNO satellite Charon was drilled and cracked until the 'phase gate' (Mass Relay) was located and activated. Within the month, the ''Excelsior ''was traveling through the Phase Gate and into its connection point into the Arcturus System. Dozens of Phase Gates were activated and traversed while over a hundred systems were surveyed by the ''Excelsior ''and its crew, Commander Grissom leading the crew to investigate possible systems in the vicinity for colonization efforts, while Lieutenant Alec Clancy Ryder investigated the planets themselves by landing on them and testing them for human viability, planting beacons with coded messages on one of five potential categories. Indigenous alien species were discovered on several life-bearing planets, but with the exception of the long-extinct Forerunners, humanity looked to be alone in the stars. That all changed in October of 2152. 'Contact Denied' In 2152, the ''Excelsior had traveled to the Carina Nebula via a Phase Gate, using its advanced sensors as well as historical radio astronomic records to chart possible systems for resources and colonization. The 'Exploration Boom' was wildly popular, and a full dozen habitable planets of varying viability had been discovered, to include full-bloom Garden Worlds such as Demeter, Shanxi, Mindoir, Terra Nova and Eden Prime. Continuing their mission of exploration and discovery, the historical system of HD 93129 was found to have two possible planets within the Frost Line of its star. Without finding any other systems with this possibility within a dozen parsecs, the Excelsior FTL'ed to HD 93129, dubbed 'Thark System', taking close to two days to do so. What they found was out of a science-fiction movie. It was clearly evident that their discovery of a possible life-sustaining planet was correct; the second planet in the system, Thark-B, indeed could support life. In fact, it had. Upon entering the system and travelling for a more in-depth scan, the crew discovered that the planet had been reduced to a Charnel House; the entirety of the planet had been scorched and razed. Ruins and impact craters were discovered through sensors, and disturbingly, the impact craters seemed to be clustered in and near former population centers, heavily suggesting orbital bombardment. Whatever weapon system or means had been used had cracked the mantle of Thark-B in several locations, creating impromptu supervolcanoes and lavalanches, raising the planetary temperature to hellish conditions. Atmospheric data suggested that the planet once had water and an oxygen-nitrogen rich atmosphere that had been mostly burned away by whatever, or whomever, had destroyed the planet. In the planet's orbit was evidence of what happened. The race that was indigenous, named the 'Thark', was a space-faring race, as suggested by metallic debris and pieces that indicated structures of vessels and space stations that hadn't re-entered the planet. On one of its moons was small colonization efforts, similar to Earth's Luna in the mid-21st Century. It too was destroyed, an impact crater right in the center of the structure, though intact ruins and remains were found as the moon was mostly airless, and decay was slow. Lieutenant Alec Ryder, known as the Pathfinder, along with an away team, went to the grisly site to discover what had happened to what could have been humanity's neighbors and First Contact. 'We Came Too Late To Save You' Ryder arrived at the scene of devastation with as much scientific equipment as he could carry in the mostly airless, low-gravity moon of Thark-B(a), intent on investigation and discovery on what had happened, who had done it, and why. Partial organic remains were found at the site of the beings that Ryder believed to be the native species, the Thark. Though not one complete body was discovered, enough remains were exhumed and reassembled to give the Pathfinder an idea of the people. They were a bipedal humanoid race that possessed four arms and tusk-like protrusions extending from their cheekbones, facing forward like the tusks of a boar. While space-flight capable, weaponry seemed to be primitive in nature, gas-propelled instead of chemical-propulsion such as gunpowder, and several bladed instruments were found to suggest that the species was more found of melee weaponry than ranged weapons. Seventeen cadavers were found by Ryder, and with the exception of the most complete one he could find, the Pathfinder buried the remains as best he could in human-like fashion, laying them to rest in sixteen separate graves at the site of their demise, placing a marker over their final resting place as a memorial, reading 'Here lie the Thark; we came too late to save you'. A total of two weeks was spent in the Thark System as the Excelsior ''went from planetary exploration to genocide investigation. Pieces of space vessels were collected for material investigation and possible structural re-engineering. Any possible cultural artifact was collected and sealed for both examination and memorialization for the race now seemingly extinct. Any data collected was archived and reviewed by the crew in the hopes to discovered who had murdered the Thark and why. Several discoveries were made during that time. The body that Ryder recovered was kept as cold as possible to keep it from decaying as researchers performed as delicate a forensic autopsy as they could, the first intelligent lifeform ever discovered being everything humanity wished to know about the galaxy at large. The Thark were a hearty breed, with more dense flesh, muscles, and bones, suggesting that they were stronger and more durable than humans. It was likely that the gravity was greater on Thark than it was on Earth, and possibly the air pressure was as well. The Thark breathed a greater quantity of oxygen, but only a few percent more, meaning co-habitation might have been a possibility. The presence of bladed weapons and ritualistic tattooes and scarring suggested a highly-evolved hunter/gatherer society, possibly war-like or competition-based. Organs were removed, pictured, weighed, investigated, and when the autopsy was done, everything was placed back in its exact location and the cadaver sutured together to as close to normal as possible. The Thark was named 'Adam' in respect, for the name of the Biblical First Man. Metallic debris and surviving pieces suggested that the Thark were recently space-faring, possibly within the century of their demise. Instead of rocket fuel, like humanity had used, the Thark used sub-orbital launches, suggesting that fossil fuels or high-energy chemical combustion might not have been available to the Thark. Some parts were obvious as spacecraft, while a heavy frame floating some hundred thousand kilometers in LaGrange Point 2 suggested a permanent space station, though it too had been destroyed beyond any hope of recovery or discovery. No intact vessel, station, or Thark cadaver was found in the vicinity of Thark-B. There was no evidence that whatever killed them was due to internal strife, be it national or personal. Tests were done at the impact crater of Thark-B(a), what killed the lunar colony dubbed 'Shangri-La' for the mythological paradise. It was discovered that the impact was not done by an asteroid, comet, meteorite, or any other possible space-faring object. The strike was centered at the colony, heavily suggesting a military strike. At the cone in the center of the impact crater, nickel-cadium alloys were found, a non-native metallurgical substance that was created by something. This confirmed that the strike was not only orbital, but non-nuclear as well. The ejecta suggested that the velocity was beyond hypersonic, entering the subluminal ranges. The 'shot' was simply a slug of dense metal alloy accelerated to a certain low percentage of light speed, and fired upon a people that possibly could not defend themselves. Radiocarbon dating of the body and the piece made a timeline difficult to ascertain due to the rigors of space as well as the near airless conditions of Thark-B(a), but thorough scans of ionizing radiation in space suggested he that debris in space had been saturated with the equivalent of some four hundred years of milliSeverts of solar particlization, suggesting that the planet had suffered its demise within the last four centuries. Due to the hellish conditions of Thark-B, only probes could survive the planet, and the conditions made any sensory readings and investigations a near-fruitless endeavor. Pcitures and readings were taken with fevor with the hopes of discovering any cultural significance, archeological discoveries, or any reason why someone would kill a planet instead of just the native population. Despite the investigations, there were still questions. The answer came in the form of a floating corpse. The Raptors Near the end of the two-week mission to discover the reason for the fate of the Thark, a lucky hit examining debris found a corpse floating in space near the Trojan Point at LaGrange Point 5. A 'rescue' mission was launched to recover the body. What the team discovered was not a pristine Thark corpse. They had found the enemy instead. The intact body was surrounded by the remains of a vessel less-than-similar to the Thark vessels. It was seemingly much more advanced, even more so than the ''Excelsior, with optotronic components and what appeared to be high-intelligent information management software programs to monitor and regulate hundreds of sub-systems. A partially intact weapon system suggested that the vessel was likely a small assault craft, a Fighter-Class with a single pilot, whom was discovered floating in space. The propulsion system was Heavy Helium (He^3) with similar but much more advanced STM material-using engine core to 'lighten' the fighters' mass to propel it faster, reaching speeds that exceeded the Excelsior's. Along with the body and somewhat intact fighter vessel, other items were included. The pilot, dubbed 'Cain' after the Biblical First Murderer, was in an armored pressure suit made up of ceramic hard plates over a synthetic weave to protect not only from the rigors of space, but also apparently combat. The pilot was armed with two weapons, what appeared to be a pistol and a sub-machine gun, which both utilized the mass-lightening element STM, allowing the rounds to achieve faster-than-hypervelocity speeds. The rounds themselves were mere packets of shaved metal from a block, grains extracted and sent through the barrel through the means of linear acceleration after its mass was dropped to near-zero. The suit was also to found to have a device that created a field that enveloped the body to dampen inertia significantly; a force field of some kind. The body of Cain was examined and autopsied with care. The alien was discovered to be an avian-like creature somewhat reminiscent of Earth's dinosaurs, though its outer body contained a hardened exoskeleton over much of its surface, suggesting that it had evolved upon a planet with a weakened magnetosphere and susceptible to solar radiation. It was a bipedal humanoid species with a long tapered fringe extending past the skull, a pair of horizontally-opposed mandibles at the sides of the jaw, taloned fingers and toes, digitigrade legs, and a biology based primarily off of dextrose amino acids. The race was tentatively dubbed 'Raptors', after the avian bird of prey. The Aftermath The discovery of not one but two intelligent space-faring species had the Excelsior returning to Earth after the investigations were complete with as much information and material as they could return with. Instead of hailing the discovery as one of the century's greatest, it was decided upon by the crew that there was a substantial threat in existence that could endanger mankind in their discovery of the stars. The newly-created Systems Alliance Space Administration had been notified of the discoveries, and teams of scientists, engineers, developers, programmers, and archeologists went to work on everything that had been recorded and discovered. This discovery turned the Systems Alliance from a organization of exploration to a effort towards defense. Shipwrights and engineers were hired almost overnight for projects involving designing new ships to 'protect' mankind in the stars, citing concerns about smuggling, theft, terrorism, and sabotage. A fleet of these ships were created quickly, designed for speed and landing as many shots as possible in as little time as it could as men and women were trained how to operate them, creating the First Fleet to be headed by Commodore Jon Grissom. Two dozen ships were created while the flagship, the Cruiser-Class SSV Uruk, named after the first acknowledged Earth city, was to command them while the groundwork for a second fleet was under way. On Earth, the discovery of exotic material weaponry and advanced armor and shielding led to the creation of a secret military unit to deal with such threats when the time came. While so little was known of the speices themselves, the Systems Alliance proposed creating what would be considered some of the harshest training proposals in existence, to better prepare its soldiers for any possible scenario. The training was located near Villia Miliar, known as the Villa, and began the concept of the 'N'-School, the letter designation created so as not to resemble anything military- or space-oriented. The armor, weapons, and shields of the Raptor were extensively studied and attempts at replication were somewhat successful, leading into the development of the first Mass Effect weapon, the M-96 Mattock. Unfortunately, replication of the shield wasn't possible at the time, and though the armor could be copied, it wasn't effective without the ability to 'slow' the kinetic energy of a shot that the shield provided in conjunction. The optronics and the high-intelligent information management software program were difficult to study without a common language, but the mechanics of it were sound enough that similar designs of human manufacture were created. The first Virtual Intelligent Programs were created for not only the First Fleet, but archival records and any monitoring equipment in which high-order math or delicate operations were needed. Likewise, the use of optronics gave humanity the use of Haptic Interface Software, doing away with physical devices for instrumentation, such as steering or keyboards. Five years later, in 2157, humanity would meet the Raptors over the skies of Shanxi. Trivia * HD 93129 is a real system, catalog name given to Henry Draper. * Tr 14 is a real Star Cluster, catalog name given to Robert Trampler * Eta Carinae is a real star, one of the brightest in the night time sky. It is approximately 7,500 ly away. * Carina Nebula is a real nebula, though not visible to those in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth. * The discovery of an unknown extinct race prior to 2157 is Mass Effect Canon, though little information is offered. The race that they discovered, dubbed the Raptors, was based off a space corpse. It was a Turian Pilot. * Desodo Crater is the canon location of the Mars Archives. * Tharks are likened to the Tharks of the Barsoomian Series created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the series beginning with 'A Princess Of Mars', featuring protagonist John Carter. * HD 93129 is unlikely to have any life-bearing planets. It is a triple-star system like the Centauri System, a pair of binary stars with a trimary encircling it. All three are O Class Supergiants that have passed their main sequence phase in less than a million years, and will likely burn out in another million. Any planet they might have will be scorched by the highly-energetic stars, and likely highly irradiated by the high-giant ultraviolet wavelengths present in that sector of space, the only known area to have it in the Milky Way Galaxy. Category:Peacemaker Series Category:Races